By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office deputies on June 7 and June 9 recovered four bodies of immigrants believed to have died while attempting to enter the country illegally.
VVSO Lt. Gina Garcia, who heads the sheriff’s office’s criminal investigations division, told the 830 Times Tuesday the first body was recovered June 7.
Garcia said the body was that of a man and was recovered from the Rio Grande in an area about four miles downstream of Amistad Dam. The area is near a small stream known as McKees Creek that empties into the Rio Grande just north of the northernmost public end of Vega Verde Road.
Garcia said deputies found no identifying information in the man’s clothing, and there were no obvious signs of foul play on the body. The body was taken to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office in Laredo for an autopsy.
Garcia said the man is believed to have been an immigrant who perished while attempting to enter the U.S. illegally while crossing the Rio Grande.
On the same day, June 7, Garcia said, sheriff’s office deputies recovered the body of a second man from the Rio Grande.
Garcia said the second body was recovered from the Rio Grande off Vega Verde Road about a quarter-mile upstream of its intersection with Cienegas Road.
Garcia said deputies again found no identifying information in the dead man’s clothing, and there were no obvious signs of foul play on the body. The body was also taken to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.
Garcia said the second man, too, is believed to be an immigrant who died while attempting to enter the U.S. illegally by crossing the Rio Grande.
Garcia said the third body was recovered from the Moody Ranch in southern Val Verde County June 9.
“We actually don’t know if this person was a male or a female. We recovered a human skeleton, skeletal remains,” Garcia said.
Garcia said there was nothing around the body that might aid investigators in identifying it and noted there were no immediate signs of foul play on the bones. She added the bones were bleached and appeared to have been there “for a while.”
She said the remains were transferred to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office for further examination.
The fourth body was also recovered June 9, Garcia said. The fourth body, that of a man, was taken out of the Rio Grande about a mile-and-a-quarter upstream of the Del Rio International Bridge off Frontera Road.
Garcia said no identifying information was found, and there were no obvious signs of foul play on the body. The body was taken to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy.
“Again, we believe this was an immigrant who died while trying to cross the river,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the four bodies recovered in June brings to 12 the number of immigrant deaths recorded in Val Verde County so far this year.
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